Guest Author - Kimi Ross

When I was teaching kindergarten in Kobuk, my students would come into the classroom in the morning and say, “Teacher, we saw lots of rabbits by our house.” I would typically respond, “Really? Are you sure? I don’t think there are any rabbits in Alaska. . . you probably saw a hare!” After some confusion about the meaning of the word hare (which they would think of has “hair”), we would have a meaningful lesson on the difference between hares and rabbits. Eventually, these students had the confidence to correct older siblings and parents when they heard the word “rabbit” when what was really meant was “hare.”

So what is the difference? Not much, in terms of appearance. The vital difference is that hares bear precocial young: leverets are born fully furred, with their eyes open, and the ability to hop around within an hour of birth. By four weeks of age, they are weaned and independent. In a northerly environment such as Alaska, where a female’s first litter is born in mid-May and nighttime temperatures are below freezing, this is a definite advantage. Rabbits, on the other hand, bear altricial young: kits are naked, blind and helpless.

Two species of hare are found in Alaska, the Alaskan or tundra hare, Lepus othus, and the snowshoe or varying hare, Lepus americanus. Both species of hare wear a white coat in winter and a brownish gray coat in summer, with black fur on the tips of their ears year round. The Alaskan hare is the largest hare species in North America, reaching 22-28 inches in length and 6-12 lbs in weight. It is commonly found in western Alaska, including the Alaska Peninsula. In contrast, the snowshoe hare is widely distributed around the state, being found in almost all locations with suitable habitat with the exception of the Kuskokwim Delta, the Alaska Peninsula, and north of the Brooks Range.

As an herbivore, the hare browses a wide variety of vegetation. In the summer they eat grass, leaves, buds, shoots and seedlings. Winter, with its dearth of green vegetation, is tougher. During this season they subsist on twigs, buds, and bark. In the area around my home they seem to prefer alders and willows, though in other habitats they may eat the bark and twigs of other trees and shrubs as well. The winter diet in particular is not very nutritious. Hares overcome this disadvantage by passing food quickly through their digestive system. Some of it comes out as dry, hard, fibrous fecal pellets; but they also produce a softer pellet, called a cecotroph, which they consume straight from their anus. Though it sounds repulsive, it's an important adaptation that allows them to extract as much protein and nutrients from their food sources as possible. Hares are most active at night, where they can browse under the cover of darkness. Unlike rabbits, snowshoe hares do not create burrows and during the day they take cover under brush piles or other natural hiding places.

Snowshoe hares in Alaska begin breeding in April. Females first breed at about one year of age and produce two or three litters per year, sometimes four. This means that in one year, a female hare may produce up to 20 young. Even with a high mortality rate – most hares live only a year or two in the wild – the population can grow rapidly. And as the snowshoe hare is an important prey animal,its population impacts the populations of other animals as well.

The snowshoe hare population cycles at about ten year intervals. Researchers have estimated population highs of up to 10,000 animals per square mile in favorable habitat in Canada. The following year, following a crash, the same area might have only 3 or 4 animals. These dramatic cycles have an enormous impact on predators, especially in northern regions where there are fewer links in the food web. The lynx population is most closely related to that of snowshoe hare, as lynx feed almost exclusively on snowshoe hare. However, other predators are affected as well. Researchers in the Denali Park area, for example, have noted that the number of nesting golden eagles is very closely related to the number of hares. Interestingly, this relationship between snowshoe hares and their predators affects other prey species as well. For example, a biologist who monitors Dall Sheep in the Alaska Range notes that when hare populations are high, golden eagles and coyotes produce more young, which inevitably increases the numbers of predators not only on hares, but the Dall sheep lambs as well. Some researchers believe that high hare populations even effect moose populations, as the hares’ habit of girdling willows – the main winter browse of moose – damages or kill the plant.

Although no one knows for certain, most experts believe there are a number of factors involved in causing the dramatic population crashes. Disease, starvation caused by over-browsing, and predation probably all contribute to the sudden decrease in hare numbers every ten years. Some researchers theorize that the plants hares browse have developed defense mechanisms to keep the population in check. The complex relationship between the hare and its environment is something that biologists will continue to try to understand.

On another note, hares are a tasty game animal and were often an important source of food in times past. In some areas of Alaska, hare drives were a common spring time activity. Although this method of hunting is no longer used, there are many who still take advantage of population highs to snare hares.